Audiobooks do not feel like disconnecting. It feels like another app on my smart device pumping digital sound into my ears.

Leaving my devices inside and sitting on the porch, reading a book feels much healthier for my brain. And more intentional consumption than passive noise to kill time.

IMO audiobooks and physical books are an identical experience for passive reading, but not for active reading.

So audiobook genre fiction is reading, but audiobook War and Peace or audiobook The C Programming Language doesn't count. Not for arbitrary gate-keeping reasons, but because reading those books implies a more active form of engagement than marching linearly through it.

I just think listening to a book is not the same as actually reading it. Just my personal preference, really, and I'm not knocking down on audiobooks.

Listening to audiobooks, IMHO, is a more passive and less focused way of consuming literature.

And it’s my understanding that, auditory vs visual processing aside, studies demonstrate that the brain activation is essentially identical between reading a book and listening to it.

Imo, audio books are perfectly comparable to listening to podcasts. Calling it reading is absurd. It is not reading, it is listening.

And reading on screen is reading.

> but audio books are the same content but delivered by a different medium, I am genuinely curious as to your opinion on is not counting

Audio books are passive content. It's not reading. Not remotely the same brain process.

Depends on the amount of focus you dedicate to your listening. But unlike reading, it's much easier to use it as background activity.

Also, I'm very much convinced that the brain is distracted away from the content by the voice acting and intonation; same way that most people physically can't concentrate when listening to music with vocals, evolution made us really sensitive to the human voice.

I think screens, in this context, means stuff like reading blog posts and whatnot on your phone or laptop.

> I personally think that though the medium is different, audiobooks are at least _similar_ to reading a book.

Very different brain processes. They're the same in that they are both forms of entertainment based on a written story, I guess.

I don't think anyone's saying audiobooks aren't "valid" or worthwhile.

Just that if someone asks you if you were reading this morning, you should probably say "no" if you were listening to a podcast. It's not a value judgement, just a category.

How could fiction books become outdated? That is an absolutely alien opinion for me!

-edit- I said "non-fiction" when I meant "fiction". Of course non-fiction books become obsolete quite fast sometimes.

"Reading books is overrated" -- what an HN take. You've gotta be kidding me.